A Hobbit’s Tale of the Soul

Trying to describe the personal journey that I’ve been on for the last four years is like trying to nail jello to the wall. I’ve gone through a thorough detox from vocational and institutional Christianity, plunged headlong into the “dark night of the soul,” and am slowly emerging with my head above unchartered waters. Bilbo’s story could well be my own, “There and Back Again: A Hobbit’s Tale,” yet the place to which I’ve returned is different and familiar all the same.

I spent roughly 10 years in pastoral ministry, or I could say that I spent 10 years in pastoral ministry roughly. I broke from full-time ministry to become self-employed in healthcare marketing, a job I still have five years later. For 18 months I tried to be bi-vocational while building this new business, but aside from preaching on Sundays, my job didn’t lend itself to be compatible with pastoral ministry.

My departure from full-time ministry was against the grain of the church-growth mentality. I was capable and expected to move on to bigger churches to continue my “ministry.” Not only did I demote myself to a smaller pastorate, but I also went “secular.” There was a lapse of 9 months before I began the bi-vocational pastorate, leaving many to circulate rumors that my last church drove me from the ministry. Beginning with leaving full-time ministry I began to contemplate ways to reinvent the wheel. I had a deep gnawing awareness that something was wrong with the way we did church. I slowly began to peel back the layers of tradition trying to find something of an authentic spirituality worth practicing.

My earliest attempts at deconstruction focused too much on models and methods. I began to see small-group/cell-driven churches as a panacea. I even started a prototype group of potential leaders with the intention of duplicating into a small network of cells that would eventually begin corporate gatherings. One of the families went back into a traditional ministry role, leaving myself and a good friend of mine to discover that the root of our problems went much deeper than having the wrong model.

The reality we came to face was that we who had spent years in the ministry were completed isolated from normal people on the outside of the four walls of the church. You cannot reach people if you’re not with people. As we began to rethink our approach to reaching people, we became acutely aware of our own hidden agendas to “win friends and influence people.” There’s a powerful quote from the movie Big Kahunawith Kevin Spacey and Danny Devito that describes this well:

It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling Jesus or Buddha or civil rights or ‘How to Make Money in Real Estate With No Money Down.’ That doesn’t make you a human being; it makes you a marketing rep. If you want to talk to somebody honestly, as a human being, ask him about his kids. Find out what his dreams are – just to find out, for no other reason. Because as soon as you lay your hands on a conversation to steer it, it’s not a conversation anymore; it’s a pitch. And you’re not a human being; you’re a marketing rep.

This realization has forever changed the way I interact with people and what I think of evangelism. I want to know people and value them for who they are and what they can teach me through their stories regardless of whether they agree with me or not.

It was about this time that I began trying to focus on being incarnational and became sympathetic to Celtic Christianity, in particular Celtic Daily Prayerof the Northumbria Community. I appreciate their focus on incarnation, prayer, contemplation, and service. It was a different, gentler form of Christianity that touched me deeply and sort of nourished me back to wholeness as a person, leaving one last link in my life to Christianity.

Aside from serving twice as an interim pastor for a few months following my bi-vocational pastorate, my wife and I quit going to church altogether. We felt no guilt whatsoever. We actually felt relieved and much happier. We didn’t disavow church for all time, but we were too well acquainted with the churches, parishoners, and pulpit personalities in our area to want to attend any of them. It was not long before a year had passed without darkening the door of a sanctuary.

In the process of deconstructing tradition and trying to be an honest broker of my motivations and convictions I became obsessed with trying to find answers to questions. Every answer yielded only more questions but better questions. It was not long before every truth I tried to stand on felt like mush beneath my feet. I found the most compelling answers not in theology but in the realm of science and reasoning. In particular my study of astrophysics and eventually quantum mechanics opened my eyes to a whole new way of seeing the world and my place in it. The Matrix is a definitive movie of our time for expressing the dynamic shift in worldviews taking place.

When your eyes are opened to see the world in a new way, there is a mixture of emotions ranging from anger for being hoodwinked to wide-eyed wonder in a new way of engaging life. Perhaps mainly for comfort I continued to come back to Celtic Daily Prayer and continually tried to rethink my way through all that I had been taught about God, the world, and who I am. I sort of came to a place where I was prepared to leave behind everything I had professed to believe in and go my own way. I realized that if I was willing to forsake it all, before I did I might as well try to start with a blank slate trying to reconstruct some semblance of a real world, liveable faith that worked for me. Demythologizing became a pathway out of the dark night of the soul for me. I began to find far more power and truth in looking through the lens of metaphor and symbolism than I ever did through literalism.

I suppose I’ve become theologically liberal. Although I never thought that was possible, I’m completely comfortable in my own skin for the first time in a long time. In no way do I consider to have to come to the end of my journey. I’m not dead yet. I find myself in a familiar place again. We’ve been visiting a few churches and found a church and a pastor with whom I can identify. I don’t have to agree with everything to find value in something. So I find myself retracing old steps but going in a new direction with a new way of seeing the road ahead. So I say with humility that I’ve been “there,” and I’ve come “back again.” There’s nothing to say I won’t end up “there” again before the journey’s over, but I’m sure it would not be the same as last I found it. I’ve discovered that I haven’t been wandering aimlessly in circles after all. I’m winding up A Spiral Staircase and though each turn around feels familiar I hope I’m gaining ground.

“Dark night of the soul” is euphemistic. It implies there’s only one night. Theresa of Avilla & John of the Cross, after testifying to how they “got thru it,” both died of long and painful illnesses.
I’ve never studied Celtic Christianity or been a pastor. I’m a Bible school dropout and a self styled Christian Freethinker. Check out my website. I’m anot sure I have what you need for conversation, but Im available.

2.Rebecca | October 30, 2007 at 7:49 am

Enjoyed that Lyndon. The Spiral Staircase is one of my favourite books.

3.LeoPardus | October 30, 2007 at 10:22 am

Very interesting that you found Celtic Christianity in your journey. That is a fairly old form of the Faith. Did you ever attend services in a Celtic congregation? From my limited understanding there are actually a few forms of it. Do you know about them, and if so, was there a form that you focused on?

My own journey led to the Eastern Orthodox Church. Despite the fact that I no longer believe, I find the EOC liturgy a very peace-inducing thing. They have a more mystical and holistic outlook on spirituality that folks find refreshing. As long as the priest isn’t preaching, I quite enjoy most of it still.

Thanks, Leo. I’ve never visited a Celtic congregation. They’re as hard to come by in Louisiana as Eastern Orthodox churches, which I’d also like to visit someday. My interest in Celtic Christianity began with reading about Celtic monks/missionaries, such as St. Patrick, Brendan, Columba, Aidan, etc. Through that interest I discovered the Northumbria Community in the U.K., which has released a U.S. version of Celtic Daily Prayer with the help of Richard Foster. They are a dispersed community of neo-monastic contemplatives.

Locally, I’ve found a liberal mainstream church downtown that is semi-liturgical and does a good job of including the arts and the contemplative rather than the dogmatic and absolute. I agree with you about the peace-inducing qualities of liturgy and appreciate the symbolism and nuance.

Lyndon, thanks for writing. I appreciated your comments before, and hearing a bit more of the story is even better.

I often wish we could do away with labels, and wonder what they would think at my Seminary if they knew what I think of “liberals” and “conservatives”.

I’m glad you are continuing the journey.

In a different post I mentioned appreciating a collaborative effort by Brueggemann, Foster, Peterson, and Willard… I find such energy and authenticity from the different places they come from. And, I’m excited to look into the Celtic Daily Prayer. Lectio Divina has been an enjoyable outlet, and really the only way I have enjoyed reading the Bible in years.

Funny how many “conservatives” think that many liberals/emergents want to throw out older traditions. When in fact, we often are running to them as sources of refreshment and wholeness.

Again, thank you for the post.

6.karen | October 30, 2007 at 12:36 pm

Interesting, and well-written. Thanks for letting us in on the background of your journey.

7.lastdaysrevival | October 30, 2007 at 1:05 pm

I have been very uncomfortable with the Evangelical Protestant Church almost since I became a Christian. Now fifteen years years later I have finally come to understand the problem. Rather than try to explain it here, I would encourage you to visit my blog.

I have been very uncomfortable with the Evangelical Protestant Church almost since I became a Christian. Now fifteen years years later I have finally come to understand the problem. Rather than try to explain it here, I would encourage you to visit my blog.

[…] also read this today: The reality we came to face was that we who had spent years in the ministry were completed […]

10.loopyloo350 | October 31, 2007 at 9:15 am

I am glad that you have found the light amid the darkness and realized perhaps that the journey itself can be rewarding. May you find that light will give you strength. If we don’t question, learn, struggle against the bonds of ignorance how will we ever appreciate the truth when we find it at last among the kernals of untruths strewn across our path.

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